Last week Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie came to visit. They've been traveling literally all over the world lately, so we sure were grateful they were willing to stop in our neck of the woods for a bit!
Lance was in Chicago at a conference and Spencer had Cub Scout Day Camp each day, so the trip was perfectly timed. I was so grateful to not have to drag all of the kiddos out the door at 7:25am every morning to get Spencer and his buddies out to Cary Camp!
On Tuesday morning Grandpa had a meeting at Purdue with some other 'bug guy', so Grandma and I took Josh, Tess, and Cole to Columbian Park to play, visit the zoo, and ride the train.
Of course the first picture I took was of a chicken. Because chickens are cool. And Josh really liked that chicken. (He kept asking if I took a picture of him. This one's for you, Josh.)
Despite the look on Tess's face, she was pretty excited to go on the train.
There we go! Woo-hoo!
As you can see, the train is pretty empty on Tuesday mornings. The kids had a blast, though. We usually only go on the train once a summer, so this was a bonus treat.
Okay, this picture is hard to see; I took it during our train ride. It's the remains of Home Hospital, where Josh and Cole were born. Josh is pretty sad that they're tearing it down. (I'm not - the new hospital is SOOOO much nicer!) Whenever we drive by the rubble he pouts and whines about it.
The next day we went to the Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville, something I've been wanting to visit for quite a while! (I'm pretty sure my kids are going to grow up moaning and groaning about all the weird places I take them. I don't care. I like history; especially unusual local history. I also like national parks, factory tours, and museums. My kids are in for a lifetime of odd and educational outings.)
Josh often poses and demands that I take a picture. I'm happy to oblige.
The tour was actually pretty good! We were, oddly, (haha), the only ones there, so we had the tour guide all to ourselves. What is a rotary jail, you ask? Well, think of a huge, multi-storied lazy susan surrounded by bars. They had issues keeping prisoners from escaping the old log cabin with dirt floors jail, so the rotary jail solved that problem. (Although it was eventually closed because it was a big ol' fire death trap.) Anways, Cole looked especially awesome on our tour with his huge Cole shirt and binoculars.
True but unrelated story: When you ask Cole how old he is he still says he's three. But when you ask Tess how old she is she says four. My kids: super cute, not so super at knowing their ages.
Susie and Josh chillin' in the Sheriff's office. The tour guide was telling us a story about some murderer who was sentenced to hang; the rope broke twice and on the third try his neck didn't snap so it took him 12 minutes to gruesomely suffocate. It was a funny-but-not-really story.
The tour guide let us go inside the actual cells and even showed us how the rotary jail worked. It was really cool! I think he said that the cells weighed something like 13 tons, but because of the gears it only took 13 pounds of force to rotate them. Pretty cool.
The only picture of me the whole week, and I'm behind bars.
We even got to go up to the second story on the rotary cells. It was pretty neat, and a little bit scary. (Only because I'm not a huge fan of heights. Especially heights that involve 130 year old buildings.)
Tessie was really impressed with all of the potties we saw at the jail. "Oh look! Potty! Oh, potty!" (This one was in the women's cell. Nice.) Don't you love her choice in outfits for our jail tour? Nothing says jail like a tutu!
A cool looking window on the second floor.)
The rotary mechanism from the top.
We went all the way from the third story of the jail to the basement - and Tess insisted on walking up and down every single stair by herself. Needless to say, she kind of held up traffic.
The basement was really neat - we were right underneath the rotary cells! The engineering was really quite impressive.
Checking out the gears.
Looking up the gear shaft.
Tess didn't seem phased by it at all.
Cole wasn't quite sure what to think.
Tess just wandered around the jail's basement and looked cute.
After the jail we went to the Lindy Freeze for lunch. The Lindy Freeze is this little local joint that has great ice cream and stuff like tenderloin sandwiches and fried pickles. Very Indiana. Very yummy. (So yummy I didn't take a picture. I was too busy convincing Tess she didn't want to play in the rather busy road. Rotten
The next morning we went to the Battleground Monument for a picnic. We went to the nature center, walked around the monument, and went on a little hike.
Josh wasn't so excited to go since he had been there on a fieldtrip just last fall. But once we got there he happily took the role of tour guide and showed us around.
Look! I actually got each child to smile for the camera! (Grandma Susie is pretty easy to get a smile from!)
The best picture I could get of the kiddos with the grandpa and grandma. Not so bad - pouty Tess is pretty standard.
Yeah, she totally started hitting him when I took this picture. Battles ensued.
Walking on the bridge. Two year olds make hikes so much more interesting with their constant death wishes. (Getting to close to the edge of bridges and tall walls, refusing any help down steep, muddy paths, etc.)
During lunch Josh found a really big caterpillar. Entomologist grandpa helped him catch it on a stick.
The weird stairs on the fence. Why have a fence if you're going to have stairs going over the fence? I've always wondered about this.
Grandpa and Grandma spent a lot of time playing with the kids and helping me out around the house. We sure were sad to see them go, and can't wait to see them again!
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